The LAT/LON numbers I put up are for the Fortuna Wash little hike up the side of the mountain. I have input routes for where we were in the Peachville area too. You just have to go to the Route Manager and OPEN to check the two routes (as I think I finally figured out how to do this).

Ambika wanted to do a photo shoot of wildflowers. I had been watching the Boyce Thompson (BTA) updates and saw where the Peachville Mountain area seemed to be the most popular. I also noticed from a HAZ photoset that Randy had been there so he agreed to meet us by the Superior sign next to the airport right off the 60.

So around 10:30ish we started our quest for GOLD. It would be quite easy to miss the turnoff for Silver King Mine Road so I'm glad Randy knew the way and we followed suit. The road is not too terribly 4WD but it is rough in sections so having high clearance and good tires is surely helpful. We arrived at the corral, observed some animals and humans and continued on our way. And before long, we were at what you might call the parking lot for Peachville Mtn. There were already quite a few photographers out and about.

Randy suggested he wanted to go further up the road than he did earlier in the week. This sounded like a good idea to me so we left Ambika to do her thing up on Poppy, I mean Peachville Mtn . This turned out to be a good choice even though the 4WD part of it got what I would call ENTERTAINING. If you would like to go along for part of the ride, check out the video and hang on !

After the "just a little bit further" muttering from Randy, he stopped so that we could walk to find a turn around spot which he did in fairly short order. I kept walking up along the narrow wash a little until I saw what looked like an old road cut. I'm starting to recognize these now. I waited for Randy to join me and we started up the poppy covered hillside. It was just beautiful .

As we got higher Randy pointed out the 's Crown to me which was off to our right. That was so . It is actually a rock formation that sits below the Peak. We then continued on higher pleasantly surprised at our find of a nice path with an incredible poppy display all around us. I somehow got ahead of Randy and soon I was just about jumping for joy as I found the Motherlode . At my feet suddenly appeared a thick carpet of instensely purple lupine and golden poppies. I was overjoyed. Don't know if you can quite tell that by this picture: http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=242573.

We walked a little further up this flowered path and as we got higher, we got full view of Picketpost too. We wanted to keep going to see where the road led even though the poppy population was dwindling but since we left Ambika back at Peachville, we were worried that maybe she might be done and might be none too happy with our dawdling. So reluctantly , we headed to Randy's truck and made our way back to Peachville Mtn.

Once at Peachville Mtn we wandered up toward where Ambika was hanging out. We snapped a view pics including a direct view to the Silver King Mine. Once back at the vehicles, we headed to the area where Randy had seen the crested saguaro and lupines. Randy decided to take us the long way through a cool little canyon to go see the area with the trough, water tank and solar panel. It was great fun wandering through this narrow canyon altho a little trying at times for Ambika because she was lugging her heavy camera and lens on her tripod. I decided to call this hike Peachville Mtn Little Canyon hike.

Not too far from the end of this particular little canyon we stopped in a shady area and had our lunch. I had brot a beer too (since I wasn't driving). Just up from us we could see some flowers and such so we headed out of this little canyon to a very picturesque area where Ambika spotted a white lupine. She had spotted a pink lupine earlier. Hopefully she will publish her 3-some pic combo that she put together. Meanwhile, you can see the pink and white lupines in Randy's photo set: http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=242608 and http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=242609. We had also seen a couple sets of yellow poppies at the start of our hike as well as the crested saguaro.

We continued up the canyon and spotted a pipe virtually coming out of the rock. There was probably cement around it at one time but now the casing seemed quite natural looking. Soon we would come upon the newer part of the water storage operation where we saw the solar panel that was generating electricity to the pump below and then over to the trough and storage tank. It's a rather ingenious idea. The storage tank's cement slab said 2011.

Up from there we spotted some rock ruins so we walked up to check it out. The walls were rather crude. There were a couple spots of these types of rock wall formations but I don't know if they were used during mining or ranching times or both. This same type of structure can be seen just after you make the turn up the road after coming off of Silver King Mine Rd.

On our walk back to the vehicles, I saw what looked like some sort of trail off to the left of the road so I decided to follow that to see where it led me. It was a nice little walk and before you knew it I was walking by a big pile of tailings and below that a little further was a big hole in the ground with a shaft toward the back. The hole's walls had been fortified on one side with a built in stone wall. Randy investigated the shaft and said it went straight down.

I went and checked out a couple more of the mine holes but didn't find shafts. So we finished the walk back to the cars, sat for a moment and then headed back to Superior for supper at Los Hermanos. Beware, unless you like gimlets , don't order the margaritas as to me it was more like a tequila gimlet. I can't remember the dish Ambika ordered but once she put the cilantro, lime/lemon and green onions on it, YUMMY!!! The sauce that comes with the chips gets your mouth's attention too.

VIDEO- part of our 4WD drive, our hike up the side of the wild-fowered mtn, our hike up the little narrow canyon: http://youtu.be/WeSE50oX2H8